Issue with Powercli Get-Datastore when passing a string

[kluken]

So I am writing a powercli scrip that will take a cluster name and with a filter enumerate all the datastores on the cluster that are on our SAN. It will then snap the VMs so that I can issue a SAN snap. I am rather new to powershell so I realize this may not be the cleanest of scripts, but the main issue I am having is with this line:

$datastorelist = Get-Datastore -Name $arrayname -VMHost $nodelist

Any help would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

If I write the $nodelist to the screen it is formatted correctly and if copy the contents of $nodelist and hard code it into the parameter it works fine, but passing the string creates the following error:

Get-Datastore : 5/13/2013 8:26:29 AM    Get-Datastore        Could not find DatastoreRelatedObjectBase with name 'vh110

1119.mydomain.com,vhost20.mydomain.com,vhost18.mydomain.com,vhost02.mydomain.com,vhost03.mydomain.com,vhost04

.mydomain.com,vhost05.mydomain.com'.

At E:\Program Files\3par scripts\vmsnaps.ps1:64 char:32

+     $datastorelist = Get-Datastore <<<<  -Name $arrayname -VMHost $hostlist

    + CategoryInfo          : ObjectNotFound: (vhost19.mydom...05.mydomain.com:String) [Get-Datastore], VimException

    + FullyQualifiedErrorId : Core_ObnSelector_SelectObjectByNameCore_ObjectNotFound,VMware.VimAutomation.ViCore.Cmdle

   ts.Commands.GetDatastore

The scrip defines some variables and loads them, then calls  FindNode then QueryDatastores

Function FindNodes

#This function will take cluster and enumerate it to the hosts wthin it and add them to a comma delimited string

{

  Write-Host

  Write-Host Enumerating cluster nodes in $cluster cluster....

  #$nodes = Get-VMHost -Location $cluster

  $nodes = Get-Cluster $cluster | Get-VMHost

  Write-Host Found $nodes.Length nodes in cluster

  foreach ($i in $nodes) {

  $i.name

  $nodelist = $nodelist +","+$i.name

  $script:nodelist = $nodelist

  }

  $script:nodelist = $nodelist.substring(1)

}

Function QueryDatastores

# This function will enumerate the datastores on the given cluster that start with the $arrayname variable.

{

  Write-Host

  Write-Host Enumerating datastores on $cluster cluster, please wait.....

  Write-Host $nodelist

  $datastorelist = Get-Datastore -Name $arrayname -VMHost $nodelist

  Write-Host Found $datastorelist.Length datastores in $cluster cluster

  foreach ($i in $datastorelist) {

  $i.name

  }

}

Clear-Host

Write-Host

Write-Host Loading Powercli....

Add-PSSnapin VMware.VimAutomation.Core -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue

Write-Host Connecting to $vcenter "please wait...."

connect-viserver -server $vcenter

FindNodes

QueryDatastores

[LucD]

What exactly do you have in $arrayname ?

[kluken]

$arranyname has the string of the datastore names we are filtering, our datastore names start with the arrarty name so the varibale contains "dsarray*"  so that any datastores not ont he sane will get filtered out. The errors seems to be with the $nodelist variable. I suspect it has to do witht he fact that the string variable has commas in it, but I hav etied putting ' infront of the commas when formatting the string variable. The error looks like it is gettingt the sting passed to it correctly.

[LucD]

No, I don't think that is a problem. The VMHost parameter accepts an array, and commas separate the elements of an array.

It could be that there is a problem with OBN.

Can you try like this

$datastorelist = Get-Datastore -Name $arrayname -VMHost (Get-VMHost -Name $nodelist)

[kluken]

OBN??

I will try that, but in the mean time I tried this and this works:

$datastorelist = (Get-Cluster $cluster | Get-VMHost) | Get-Datastore -Name $arrayname

[LucD]

I provided a link to the About OBN article in my previous answer.

[kluken]

Tried your suggestion

$datastorelist = Get-Datastore -Name $arrayname -VMHost (Get-VMHost -Name $nodelist)

and same error. At least I have a work around for now with

$datastorelist = (Get-Cluster $cluster | Get-VMHost) | Get-Datastore -Name $arrayname

[LucD]

I just tried the same thing under PowerCLI 5.1 R2, and I don't seem to have a problem.

Which PowerCLI version are you using ? Do a

Get-PowerCLIVersion

[kluken]

Same version 5.1 R2

[LucD]

And in $nodelist you have the result from

Get-Cluster $cluster | Get-VMHost

I trust ?

[kluken]

Yes, but I was populating it line by line, it seems if I directly fill $nodelist with Get-Cluster $cluster | Get-VMHost it works, so somehow me constructing the comma delimited string casues it to not work. I will use the direct fill as you demonstrated instead. Thanks!